Penalties, and more penalties

The two semi-finals of the First Citizens Cup played at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Friday evening failed to live up to my expectations. I was expecting to see lots of goals and also non-stop excitement; there was barely either. Both games were decided on penalty kicks after being goalless through the 90 minutes of regulation time and after the dust had settled Central FC and North East Stars emerged as the two winners. Central defeated Police 3-1 while North East got the better of San Juan Jabloteh by a 4-3 margin.

The second game of the evening’s double-header involving North East Stars and Jabloteh promised a lot in the early stages but in the end delivered very little. The Stars bolted out of the gates and looked set to give Jabloteh’s custodian Shane Mattis a long night as attacker Keron Cummings stung the big Jamaican’s finger tips with a left-footed drive in only the first minute. Much of the first half play headed towards Mattis’ goal thereafter but The Stars just could not get that clinical touch. Their precise and sharp passing caused a few problems for the Jabloteh backline within the first half hour and it even forced a collision in the Jabloteh penalty area. Mattis called for and collected a tame looking through ball which was intended for Stars striker Tyrone Charles and subsequently collided with one of his defenders in his follow through. The innocuous looking challenge left Mattis sprawling on the ground and in need of attention. He was then stretchered off after receiving treatment for approximately seven minutes.

Mattis’ replacement Raheem Belgrave was sprung into action almost immediately in the 37^th minute but was bailed out after Stars midfielder Taryk Sampson had his shot blocked after being played through on goal. Belgrave had to be on his toes again three minutes later as the in-form Charles found himself with a glorious opportunity from point-blank range but could only find Belgrave who was able to collect gleefully on the second attempt. Stars were almost made to pay for their wastefulness just before the end of the first half as Jabloteh full-back Jevon Morris found himself in a promising position after some neat work by Kerry Baptiste and Newton Sterling. Morris was unable to keep his effort on target though and looked on agonizingly as his left-footed shot sailed pass Cleon John’s right-hand post. 

Much of the sting was taken out of the game in the second half as both teams looked to have the shootout on their minds. There were still some great chances to win it in regulation time though and a couple of those fell to Charles who would have wished he took his shooting boots with him to Couva. First in the 62^nd minute the striker outpaced two Jabloteh defenders to make a long ball his but only managed to find the frame of Belgrave after the goalkeeper rushed off his line. Then in the 72^nd he failed to apply a finishing touch to a precise Kennedy Hinkson cross. 

As was the case in the first half, Jabloteh was almost able to snatch the game away from North East as the veteran Baptiste saw his shot skim off the post in the 81^st minute. Baptiste found himself in acres of space in the penalty area following a lucky ricochet but his right-footed shot just would not roll in.  

 

North East Stars midfielder Kion Joseph had the honors of sending his team through to the final as he coolly tucked away the tenth kick in the shootout to give his team a 4-3 win.

Central FC midfielder Jean Luc Rochford prepares to deliver a corner kick

 In the earlier of the two games Central FC goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams stole the show as he came up with three saves in the penalty shootout to see his team to victory. Central created the better of the chances during regulation time but were wasteful. This was largely down to sloppy finishing by Jason Marcano and Ataulla Guerra, and some fine work by Police's custodian Adrian Foncette.